GREENVILLE, S.C. — Today, U.S. Senator Jim DeMint (R-South Carolina), chairman of the Senate Steering Committee, made the following statement after the announcement that General Motors (GM) has filed for bankruptcy under Chapter 11.

“The price tag of government bailouts for GM and Chrysler has climbed to more than $60 billion but failed to stop the bankruptcy many of us knew was inevitable six months ago,” said Senator DeMint. “We could have saved the American people a lot of money if we allowed these companies to restructure last year. Instead, special interest politics trumped common sense and billions have been wasted and tens of thousands of jobs have been lost. Now the government has forced taxpayers to buy these failing companies without any plausible plan for profitability. Does anyone think the same government that plans to double the national debt in five years will turn GM around in the same time?”

In April, Congress could have stopped the taxpayer bailouts of GM and Chrysler when Senator DeMint offered an amendment to prohibit further taxpayer funding for Chrysler and GM, but the amendment was not passed on a vote of 66-31.